How not to limit guns

Public officials in places like Jersey City are understandably concerned about the proliferation of guns in their communities. That's why it's tough to criticize Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy's decision to embrace an ordinance preventing local residents from purchasing more than one handgun within 30 days.

The measure was on shaky legal ground from the start when Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli declared the ordinance invalid because it conflicts with state law. Predictably, earlier this week, the Appellate Division of Superior Court affirmed Gallipoli's ruling.

A week ago, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who has made gun control a priority, saw gun laws he had pushed declared invalid by a Pennsylvania court.

In the Philadelphia and Jersey City cases, the issue is "pre-emption," legal parlance for the notion that a municipality cannot pass an ordinance that conflicts with state law. Nutter in Philadelphia, like Healy in Jersey City, wanted to limit residents to purchasing one gun a month.

Gun control is the purview of state legislatures and Congress. That's where politicians must go to make their case for stronger gun laws. In New Jersey, unlike many other states, that has occurred. The Legislature has long been a leader when it comes to adopting sensible gun laws.

Those laws have not completely stanched the flow of illegal guns into the state, but they do provide a comprehensive approach to regulating the licensing and sale of guns.

Already one lawmaker, Assemblywoman Joan Quigley, has introduced a bill that would limit everyone in New Jersey to one gun a month. She asks what seems like a legitimate question: Why would anyone need more than one gun a month? The only problem with the measure is that it already takes much longer than one month for most people to go through the process of purchasing a gun.

Moreover, most of the guns used in violent crimes in this state are not legally purchased here. They come from places like Virginia, which has a one-gun-a-month law, too.

Clearly more must be done, but Jersey City's approach wasn't the right one.